I met Steven Tyler once when he was up in Edinurgh for the Pump Aerosmith tour of the time, amazing guy, he talked a lot about his home town Boston, no jokes and some coincidence after what has just happened there ... Female Rock writer from my town too.
Laura has written lots of books for the stars.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Steven-Tyler-Biography-Laura-Jackson/dp/0749929545

PS John, in hindsight, do you think it would have been wiser as a Proud American you are always blowing off about to not have bought this crap up in the first place?
Nobody else from a UK flight sim perspective would have seen it.
What the hell did it have to do with you anyway?
I'm really leaning towards the theory you troll with what you know you can get away with now.
And they can appear to themselves every day On closed circuit T.V. To make sure they're still real. It's the only connection they feel. "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, Reagan and Haig, Mr. Begin and friend, Mrs. Thatcher, and Paisly, "Hello Maggie!" Mr. Brezhnev and party. "Who's the bald chap?" The ghost of McCarthy, The memories of Nixon. "Good-bye!" And now, adding color, a group of anonymous latin- American Meat packing glitterati. Did they expect us to treat them with any respect? They can polish their medals and sharpen their Smiles, and amuse themselves playing games for awhile. Boom boom, bang bang, lie down you're dead. Safe in the permanent gaze of a cold glass eye With their favorite toys They'll be good girls and boys In the Fletcher Memorial Home for colonial Wasters of life and limb.
:

Sigh, John ... I don't know what it is about you that Joe finds attractive? A promised holiday in the US under the sun soon?
But you have always punched under the belt with me when you thought you were being clever to me IMHO, enjoy your
notiariaty my friend.
You have always been known how to truly wind someone up then run to Daddy ... please tell me Joe, John is as pure as cotton silk and never ever gets involved in altercations here and is as good as gold.
I've got a cousin who is as pompous as you John. and my word he takes a lot of getting on with, he can blurt out without thinking too.

Hopefully she has RIP'd now and life can move on again? It was interesting to see the right that were aggressive towards the left were wrong, hardly anyone was disrespectful in this ridiculous waste of money military funeral procession I have no option for to pay for, very few turned their back on this procession in London but it does not mean it was a right wing Tory Whitewash as , community's that were effected are still effected, Maggies Black and White policy's still live on today under Cameron whom is a Thatcher lover true and Blue.
I just think we've set a dangerous precedent ... lets look at the big picture here.
There were loads of UK Politicians in power involved in various wars over the years who never got a mega expensive TOLD to be paid for by public military funereal like Thatcher, and do you think Tony Blair who will pass away in time too will get the same send off? He was involved in wars too where even more of our lads have died in fighting the futile wars in Iraq/Afghanistan than ever did in the Falkands ... Of course not.
Its all political posturing, like Maggie or not, keep it to yourself, shite like this does not bring us together it just divides us.
This is the British Tory propaganda machine in full swing again ... It was the right thing to do, yeah Cameron.
Politics.
So much for, "We're all in this together" David Cameron, so much too for his big society wish too .... asshole Tory politicians got nearly £4000 (EACH) of our tax payer money to travel to the Thatcher funeral that we dont have a final bill for yet but must be in excess on 10 million quid and Hee Haw whilst me and Brian who are genially disabled who each worked all our lifes as long as we could are subjected to scrutiny of the most degrading order under their welfare reforms under ATOS (LOL) fairness.
Some of you guys need to open your eyes to what is really going on But I fear we are in a culture if it does not effect you directly, nobody will give a damn until it does.

Just looking back on this thread again, for what we do ... Flight Simmers, has anyone really found any positive gains in Win 8? FSX, P3D or any other sim as an OS as 8 has had a little time to mature?
For IL2 Cliffs of Dover at least we have had to rely on a Win 8 cludge around as official support for that sim is dead now.
As I mentioned Win 8 64 is on my second quick I7 2600K PC and I'm not ashamed to play games on it, the new Bioshock Infinite looks stunning on it (I hope its OK to admit this stuff here ) But mainly I've found out how to make Win 8 look and behave like Win 7 for what I like to do ... its not that you cant teach old dogs new tricks (and I am an old dog now) but I see no need to reinvent the wheel ... I think the problem is, Microsoft or Steve Balmer saw what Apple did and wanted a chunk of that pie too, Microsoft could have had a larger market share without ramming tablet or mobile market down our throats ... but that's what they seem to have done ... a massive gamble IMHO.
What was wrong with giving options of Start or Metro (clunk) at the beginning, they could have easily done that and satisfied twice the fan base immediately IMHO.
I just can never understand what Microsoft do any-more (Sorry John) They seem to be on a death wish to alienate their older desk top users whilst desperately trying to grab a part of the honeypot Apple are still doing so well with.
This is probably the wrong time to mention again "Microsoft Flight" was a failed venture in the grand scheme of their future thoughts recently, but it was, even the divide and conquer tactics used will eventually be seen as a major failing in current Microsoft's thought process ... and I'm sure most would agree as the years pass by and they look at MS Flight again and what really happened.
This may seem political, but at least its Flight Sim Political ... I've seen fall outs with these topics before but when we go to general chat, more real world political topics are OK and we can self moderate.
But mention Microsoft Flight again and I can just imagine the iron of at least one mod here coming down on me quickly
I'm making a reasonable request here, if we can have highly volatile political discussions about divided politicians like Maggie Thatcher where some of us bite our tongue in respect for other members, some of whom never directly effected your life whatsoever ... what is so wrong about discussing Flight Sim Politics on here (A Flight Simulation site) and most assuredly what ever stance you take Microsoft Flight got political in its own way? What's wrong with that?
It will all come out in the wash one day, if not on this site, another ... I'd rather we never buried it here or swept it under the carpet as many sites like Avism seem to do.
Rant over, this is not a deliberate Anti MS rant BTW but as I put down thoughts it was inevitable I'd think about MS Flight too and it would be wrong or stifled to not mention it.
John, I feel Obama is a fantastic president for you Americans... I really do, compared to Bush Jnr, he is from my perspective a highly articulate young man who does the right thing ... I'm not trying to wind you up, but if I were to post this on the GA topic forum, you must see how this would be a red rag to a bull to Proud Americans like you ... its obvious to me he is not a lot of Americans perfect president ... can you see where I'm coming from here and why I've not posted for two weeks for grinding my teeth?
Cheers for letting me get this off my chest.
Also, excuse me for being up so late, its been a long day and my feedback from biologics and physio therapy in Aberdeen today on my deteriorating condition is as good as can be expected.

Wow March ... I can just imagine your feelings taking those pictures, you must be very proud and rightly so, I'd love to own something like that and learn its intricacies and foibles, heck I'd treat it as a second home even if it never left harbour!
When I was well off in my younger days (Heh) I had the pleasure of being able to afford the best road Superbikes of the time and seeing them delivered to the local dealer (I even built one from the crate myself) but that was something else indeed, a new Bike had a factory smell about it even that was special and lives in memory.
I can only imagine how you feel with something like this.
Enjoy, we only live once.

Here here Dai ... I've really been biting my tongue on this one for respect to members and Joe especially, but am going to let a little loose now from my perspective.
Every move she made was charged by negativity; she destroyed the British manufacturing industry, she hated the miners, she hated the arts, she hated the Irish Freedom Fighters and allowed them to die, she hated the English poor and did nothing at all to help them, she hated Greenpeace and environmental protectionists, she was the only European political leader who opposed a ban on the Ivory Trade, she had no wit and no warmth and even her own Cabinet booted her out. She gave the order to blow up The Belgrano even though it was outside of the Malvinas Exclusion Zone – and was sailing AWAY from the islands! When the young Argentinean boys aboard The Belgrano had suffered a most appalling and unjust death, Thatcher gave the thumbs up sign for the British press.
We are not so innocent and perfect, guys.

Interesting thought. Which do you think is a better one?
A race or a species? , none of this has any bearing on your later points John ... I think you are just trying to casually draw me into one of your HOT debates because you think I'm an easy kill?
I think with a nick like M31, I think outside of the box on the grander scheme of things, you might have different values?
But I'm not going to be drawn into one of your orchestrated arguments I cant win my friend ... better luck somewhere else next time
I've got the weigh of you now
This kind of discussion is futile.
Sorry.

Thats a great book Kieran, have read it twice now and soak up more and more detail each read.
Bit confused about feedback on Maggie here though ... I don't think anybody who thought against her were out of order (elsewhere on the internet, yes) but all this thanking each other for positive comments about her is maybe a bit OT too? We are all entitled to our opinion, even if it does not go with the flow.
I lived through the Thatcher years in the prime of my life and am from a military family too, so talking with a little experience and opposing feedback I hope.
I could have been very controversial about this and went with my gut feelings, some Thatcher supporters here have weighed in with what they believe was wonderful about her, but there are always two sides to a story, but I've held back with my side out of respect for the dead... even tried to add a bit of humour, have been on best behaviour here about this, and trust me ... I'm really not her best fan.
Expanding on this ... I just hate politics ... I really do, its almost tribal nowadays, like you have to choose a football team side or something, and then after no matter what happens, you support that team until the end, certainly for some forums I visit that entertain politics, its deeply entrenched fans ... a politician of one side can do something really unforgivable, but the supporters will support to the hilt each time ... truly and utterly Tribal.
I think as a race or species, we are still truly backward.

LOL, had to think for a moment here John about what you meant ... North Korea and Kim Jnr ... I know you like to express yourself politically too.
This is another can of worms though ... suffice to say I'm on your side ... is there a side any-more?
Thats a repetitive difficult situation for sure, calmer minds need to prevail.

Final thoughts on Maggie here ... I'll play this old clip without respect or malice towards Maggie ... I think she would have liked this.
We need Spitting Image back again IMHO to put some of the clowns in current UK politics (on all sides) back in their places IMHO ... I'm totally embarrassed seeing them argue and lie to each other and the public in general these days. Its all tit for tat politics now, totally cringe-worthy awful stuff.

Fly, been following the Thatcher passing away topic on the various UK forums I visit tonight and its right what you say ... its pretty much split down the middle, some loved her, some hated her ... I'd not say I hated her (that's too strong a word) but lets say I don't see some of her home politics the way others do, she had dementia towards the end I understand, not the best way to go
I will reinforce my opinion on the Falkland matter though, just as we were lucky to have Winston Churchill as the right PM in WW2, Thatcher was the right PM for the Falklands conflict ... Wow, I can remember that whole era kicking off like it was yesterday!

She was definitely the best PM for taking the Falklands back, cant imagine any of our subsequent PM's being so strong if they had to do it ... but as regards other home policies ... I'll keep my thoughts about that to myself, this aint the time ... not a big fan, but RIP.